All posts by csb10.top

Shaun Pollock, the former South Africa captain, has joined the MCC’s World Cricket Committee. He is currently playing in the Indian Premier League and accepted the invitation from Tony Lewis, the cricket committee chairman.Lewis, together with the MCC secretary and chief executive, Keith Bradshaw, and head of cricket, John Stephenson, has been in India to conduct talks with three World Cricket Committee members actively involved in the IPL. Pollock and Rahul Dravid on the playing side and Martin Crowe, who is chief cricket officer of the Bangalore Royal Challengers.”I am honoured and delighted to be joining the MCC’s World Cricket Committee at such an interesting time for the sport,” said Pollock. “The challenge for cricket is to embrace change for the good of the game whilst celebrating its rich heritage and the MCC’s World Cricket Committee has a huge role to play in this respect.”A lifetime’s involvement in cricket has given me so many great experiences and I hope my knowledge of the game can be beneficial. It’s a huge honour to be asked to contribute and I’m greatly looking forward to my next challenge in the game.”The next World Cricket Committee meeting will take place at Lord’s on May 12 and 13. The discussions will cover a range of issues including technology, the worldwide Twenty20 leagues and the conduct of players.”The strength of the MCC’s World Cricket Committee is in its independence, its ability to freely think and recommend change for the benefit of the sport,” said Lewis. “It is also a body that combines a huge array of talent from all over the world. Importantly, the MCC has the resource to support the work of the committee, with its increasing investment into research and development of the game. We look forward to discussions next week and anticipate a healthy debate and some forthright opinion.”

The Ashes have gone and the Melbourne Test went in three days, but the England coach Duncan Fletcher does not believe it was the worst performance of his coaching reign. Fletcher rated Michael Vaughan’s first Test in charge as a lower point than the innings-and-99-run defeat at the MCG on Thursday, which gave Australia a 4-0 advantage.England won the toss and batted but could cobble together only 159 and managed another 161 in the second innings. “I wouldn’t say that’s the worst we’ve played,” Fletcher said as his team should have been starting the fourth day. “We haven’t played as well as in previous Tests and series, but from our point of view we just didn’t make enough runs on that first day. It was crucial to put in a better performance.”England have been speaking about improving since the first Test and they have only one more opportunity to avoid being the second side to lose an Ashes series 5-0. Despite the predicament Fletcher had no problems saying he was happy with the team. “They are trying their hardest,” he said. “I’ve seen how disappointed they are.”Fletcher said England’s innings-and-92-run loss to South Africa when Vaughan replaced Nasser Hussain in 2003 was his worst result as coach. “We really felt down after that,” he said. “I can remember that very clearly.”

Division Two

Chris Rogers struck a magnificent 319 as Northamptonshire piled up an imposing 628 against Gloucestershire Northampton. He already had 242 overnight and continued on his merry way until Chris Taylor finally prized him from the crease. Rogers left with his highest first-class score, beating the double-century he posted against Australia during last year’s Ashes series, and 50 fours and two sixes in his 417-ball stay. Still, Northants didn’t stop as the tail flung the bat. Lance Klusener and Steven Crook cracked rapid 40s before Steve Kirby wrapped up the innings with a hardworking five-wicket haul. Gloucestershire lost two early wickets in reply but Craig Spearman steadied their innings with a swashbuckling century.Surrey, and especially Mark Ramprakash, just can’t stop scoring runs. Following his triple-century last week, Ramprakash became the first batsman to pass 2000 runs for the season as Worcestershire were put to the sword at New Road. He became the first English batsman to pass the milestone since he did it back in 1995, before falling for 196 to the last ball of the day. Through Ramprakash’s effort, Jon Batty’s 104 – a second for the season – and a crunching, unbeaten 110 from Ally Brown, Surrey raced into the lead in familiar fashion. Only Mark Butcher missed out as he fell for a duck.Somerset capitulated on the second day against Derbyshire as they slumped to 151 all out at Derby. Steffan Jones took four wickets and Ian Hunter three as the batting showed precious little resistance. Only Neil Edwards, with 75, put up any fight until he was eighth out but Cameron White decided not to enforce the follow-on. Michael di Venuto then took the bowlers to the cleaners with a rapid century at more than a run-a-ball as Derbyshire sped into a huge lead. Simon Francis went for 32 off two overs.

Division One

Luke Sutton hit his first century for Lancashire as the Roses clash with Yorkshire at Old Trafford remained a tight battle. The home side lost early wickets in reply to Yorkshire, but they were settled by another fine century from Mal Loye, who followed his match-saving 148 against Sussex with an even hundred. However, Loye fell shortly after tea to Darren Lehmann with Lancashire nearly 100 adrift. Sutton had already passed fifty and took charge of the innings with some support from Glen Chapple and Kyle Hogg as Lancashire edged into the lead. Deon Kruis was the pick of the Yorkshire attack but the young supporting cast struggled to make an impression.Michael Carberry led Hampshire‘s fightback against Middlesex at Lord’s with an unbeaten 103 after they had conceded 422. Paul Weekes and Ben Scott claimed full batting points for Middlesex and then Chris Silverwood picked up the early wicket of James Adams with the new ball. John Crawley, though, continued his fine form and added 134 for the second wicket with Carberry before Middlesex hit back with three wickets for 18 runs. Carberry remained firm and reached his second century of the season shortly before stumps.Alex Loudon claimed 5 for 49, his best figures of the season, to give Warwickshire complete command over Nottinghamshire at Edgbaston. Warwickshire extended their first innings to 381 and the visitors were decently placed on 131 for 2 when Loudon made his impact. David Alleyne and Stephen Fleming had both passed fifty before falling to Loudon’s offspin and David Hussey was run out first ball. In the end Nottinghamshire could only squeeze a single batting point but Warwickshire didn’t enforce the follow-on, conscious of not wanting to bat last. They wobbled slightly, losing three late wickets, but are still well placed with a lead of 229.

As had been expected for some time now, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were finally ruled out of Pakistan’s World Cup squad, though the decision, farcically, came minutes before the team’s departure to the Caribbean. Asif is down with an elbow injury while Shoaib is nursing a crocked knee.”We have received their medical assessments and the players are physically unfit. Therefore we felt we shouldn’t take them for such a big tournament,” PJ Mir, the team spokesman told Cricinfo. “Their injuries will take time to heal so after selectors consulted Inzamam-ul-Haq the decision has been taken to not take them.”The pair will be replaced by fast bowler Mohammad Sami and allrounder Yasir Arafat. “Sami and Arafat will join the team in the Caribbean in a few days but we have to get clearance for them from the ICC’s technical committee. Their names were decided by the captain and the selection committee together,” Mir added, mindful perhaps of reports today speculating that the decision to name Azhar Mahmood as a replacement for Abdul Razzaq overlooked the selection committee altogether.Though injuries remain the official reasons for their withdrawal it is understood that continuing doping-related concerns clinched the issue. The pair tested positive last year for Nandrolone in internal dope tests conducted just before the Champions Trophy got underway, but their bans were eventually overturned, much to the chagrin of the global cricket community.Fears that traces of Nandrolone remained at unacceptably high levels in their bodies were enhanced as the pair, for varying reasons, avoided undergoing another PCB-conducted dope test, held last week for all members of Pakistan’s World Cup squad. Only last week, an official close to the team had told Cricinfo that neither of the injuries were serious enough and if the pair didn’t go, it would only be “over concerns with the doping issue”, a thought confirmed once again today by an official. There was a threat that if the two tested positive again, either in internal tests or those conducted by the ICC, they would face stringent bans.Shortly before the pair were ruled out, the ICC confirmed they would be target-testing players at the World Cup and Malcolm Speed made specific reference to Shoaib and Asif. “Both Shoaib Ahktar and Mohammed Asif have played for Pakistan over the past few months despite testing positive for prohibited substances last year,” he said.”That is a fact neither player has disputed and it is also a fact that has caused the game a high level of embarrassment as a result. We want to make absolutely sure that all players who take part in the World Cup do so on the basis that they are free from banned substances.”From an ICC perspective, having the option to target test as well as the already-scheduled tests in place means that if a player does have anything in his system then there is a very strong possibility he will be caught out.”Nasim Ashraf, the PCB chairman, however, stressed that Shoaib and Asif’s exclusions were due to injuries and unrelated to the doping issue. “The truth is both of them are injured and they may take even months to make a full recovery,” Ashraf told PTI.”The board’s medical panel will soon check them out but the chances of them recovering quickly from their injuries is very bleak.”Whatever the reasons for their exclusion, the impact of their absence cannot be underestimated; Asif is one of cricket’s most exciting young bowlers and Shoaib one of the game’s fastest. Inzamam acknowledged to reporters that losing the two, and the uncertainty surrounding them, was not the best way of preparing for the tournament. “It is not an ideal situation for us. We are going there under intense pressure. But in the past we have played in such situations with tremendous team spirit and we can achieve best results even without our key players.”Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, preferred to draw strength from good results achieved over the last two years without the two bowlers. “It is a big blow and I feel sorry for both these players. They are missing a mega event.”But last year we did well without Shoaib in Sri Lanka and the year before in India without either of the two bowlers,” he added. “I want to remind the players of those two series and of playing with the same unity and spirit we showed on those tours. If we can replicate that, we can still do well. We also now know at least where we stand and exactly what players we have available.”It now means that Pakistan go into cricket’s premier event without three key components of their team, after Razzaq was also ruled out of the tournament this week with a serious knee injury. Additionally, they will be without allrounder Shahid Afridi – owing to a four-match ban imposed by the ICC for misconduct in South Africa – for their first two games, including a tough opening game on March 13 against the hosts. Preparations for big series or tournaments in Pakistan are often blighted but few in recent memory have been as ravaged by injuries, controversies and scandals as this.

ScorecardA century from Amandeep Khare laid the platform for India Under-19s to wrap up a four-run D/L win over Sri Lanka Under-19s at the Premadasa Stadium. Khare, who came in to bat after a 77-run opening stand between Washington Sundar and Ishan Kishan, made 102 off 98 balls, with nine fours and a six. He added 107 with Washington, who was out for 77, and a further 82 with Virat Singh (30) to take India to 266 for 2 with 3.1 overs remaining. Sri Lanka struck back, taking five wickets and conceding only 18 runs off the last 19 balls of India’s innings to limit them to 284 for 7.Set a revised target of 255 in 47 overs, Sri Lanka began well, with Avishka Fernando (75, 89b, 4×4) adding 60 for the first wicket with Salindu Ushan and 94 with Charith Asalanka (74, 86b, 7×4) for the second wicket. When Fernando was run out in the 31st over, Sri Lanka needed 101 from 99 balls. Though Shammu Ashan (23), Wanidu Hasaranga (27) and Kamindu Mendis (15 not out) all made useful scores, they fell just short, ending on 250 for 5. Rahul Batham (2 for 32) and Zeeshan Ansari (1 for 32) played key roles in India’s defence, maintaining a combined economy rate of 3.96 across the 16 overs they bowled.

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, has expressed surprise over the pitch at Newlands on which the fourth innings was being played at the end of day two.At stumps South Africa were at 36 for 2 needing 125 more to win. With day three certain to produce a result, Woolmer agreed South Africa were favourites but he insisted Pakistan would certainly be trying. “We would be stupid to come here tomorrow thinking we had lost the game.”On the first day Pakistan were bowled out for 157 with Makhaya Ntini and Jacques Kallis getting four wickets each. South Africa batted for the 39 overs remaining in the day and lost five wickets.On the second day 17 wickets fell as Pakistan wrapped up the South African first innings in 14 overs and then proceeded to be bowled out for 186 inside 52 overs themselves. Graeme Smith was at the other end when Paul Harris, the nightwatchman, was trapped leg before by Danish Kaneria off the last ball of the day.”With 32 wickets in two days, it’s either extremely bad batting, wonderful bowling or something slightly wrong with the pitch,” said Woolmer. The pitch was not reported to the ICC, Woolmer said, because it hadn’t turned dangerously. He also felt that though the pitch was difficult Pakistan had batted poorly in the second innings.”The odd ball is unplayable and then you get out trying to score runs off a ball that is pretty mediocre. You don’t often get these games. Specifically in Test cricket you shouldn’t get these games because in Test cricket you should be more disciplined in the way you bat.”Woolmer said that though he was an advocate of results in Test cricket he understood that financial implications were high when there was no cricket for two-and-a-half days.Dale Steyn, the South African fast bowler, was optimistic about South Africa’s chances of winning the series. “All we need tomorrow is one or two semi-partnerships and one decent partnerships and we should wrap it up soon after lunch.”

The coroner’s inquest into the death of former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer has been extended by another week, with coroner Patrick Murphy to continue his summation of the evidence on Monday.The inquest in Kingston, Jamaica, heard evidence from 57 witnesses and statements from seven other persons. The 11-member jury is expected to deliver its verdict within a week.Woolmer died hours after he was found unconscious in his Jamaica hotel room on March 18, a day after Pakistan suffered a humiliating defeat to Ireland at the World Cup. Dr Ere Seshaiah, the government pathologist who conducted the post mortem, declared that Woolmer was murdered but three independent pathologists all concluded later that Woolmer died due to natural causes.

In a season where New Zealand’s bowlers kept dropping like flies, Jacob Duffy emerged as the leader of the pace pack. During the T20I series against West Indies, Mitchell Santner, the white-ball captain, called Duffy the leader of the attack along with Matt Henry in the shortest format. In the absence of Henry, Kyle Jamieson and Will O’Rourke, Duffy stepped up as the spearhead once again, this time in the longest format to lead New Zealand to a 2-0 series win against West Indies in Mount Maunganui.Duffy is usually known for his swing and accuracy, but on a day-five Bay Oval pitch he showed that he could also hit the deck and hit it hard, like Neil Wagner used to do back in the day. He generated vicious bounce off a length and made West Indies’ batters, who had pulled off an epic draw in Christchurch not too long ago, look like amateurs.”I’m just enjoying my career, I don’t know. I don’t look at things too holistically I guess,” Duffy said after bowling New Zealand to victory in Mount Maunganui. “It has been an awesome ride; it’s been testing with all the bowlers going down and obviously the workload is pretty high “But I guess the fact that Tommy [Tom Latham] keeps asking me to bowl the ball, I’d like to view that as a bit of a privilege. You just get to trust you to keep bowling and doing the good stuff, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”Duffy finished the three-match Test series against West Indies with 23 strikes at an average of 15.43, snatching the New Zealand record from Trent Boult for the most wickets over a single home series. It extended his tally to 81, surpassing Sir Richard Hadlee’s record for the most wickets in a calendar year for the Black Caps.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Duffy has had a long and winding journey to this summit. Hailing from Southland, a region that isn’t necessarily known for producing sporting icons, Duffy made his T20 debut for Otago when he was 17. But he had to wait until he was 26 to make his international debut for New Zealand. On his T20I debut, he bagged 4 for 33 against Pakistan, but had to wait until he was 31 to play Test cricket for New Zealand. In four Tests, he has displayed the traits to lead this attack in the post-Southee-and-Boult era.”I guess that’s probably the Southland kid in me,” Duffy said. “I think you grow up down there and even playing for Otago seems ridiculous when you’re growing up. To come on to the international stage and I guess start to feel like you belong, that’s really cool.”I guess it was probably out here last year, this time of year against Sri Lanka, I guess I started putting in some match-winning, match-changing spells and stuff in 2020 and you start to feel like you belong internationally. It’s a really cool feeling, it gives you that trust and belief in yourself and you know you’re worth it.”Related

• Jacob Duffy makes big impact at small Eden Park

• Report: Duffy, Ajaz rip through West Indies

• 'Series by series' – Williamson on his international future

Duffy’s international success has now landed him an IPL deal as well. In the recent IPL mini-auction last week, he was picked by defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for INR 2 crore as a potential replacement for Josh Hazlewood, who is currently injured.”I think it’s always going to be a surprise isn’t it, you see your name on that weird auction screen, that was an interesting experience but yeah, like I said it was a very weird experience,” Duffy said. “It was quite cool, still a surprise, you just never know what’s going to happen.”It’s such an odd experience but pretty cool and we’ve got a big series in India before that and then into the [T20] World Cup and then there’s a lot of time in India coming up, it’s an amazing place so I’m looking forward to all of it.”Before that, Duffy will enjoy Christmas with his wife’s family in Te Anau and with his mother in Cromwell in Central Otago.The emergence of Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes and Matthew Fisher has provided more depth to New Zealand•Zimbabwe Cricket

The New Year then brings new opportunities for Duffy. Apart from the India tour and IPL gig, he could be among the frontrunners to be picked in the attack for marquee Test tours of England and Australia.”It’s amazing, there’s Test cricket [against] India at home as well, that’s a huge series,” Duffy said. “It’s exciting for the group and definitely I’ve done two-and-a-half England tours now where I’ve not played, so to go over there and potentially maybe do that and Aussie away too – those are the pinnacles I think. Those are the highlights of your career potentially, especially in the red-ball scene.”Duffy is also particularly enthused about the growth of Zak Foulkes. Though Foulkes went wicketkless in Mount Maunganui, he showed how good he can become with his ability to swing the ball both ways. He also earned an IPL deal, with Stephen Fleming’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) picking him for INR 75 lakh. Duffy sees Foulkes as a player with a high ceiling.”He’s awesome,” Duffy said of Foulkes. “I think we’ve all forgotten, what is he 22-23? I think we’ve all forgotten that. I certainly couldn’t be doing what he’s doing at 23 so just the load on itself is pretty crazy and his skills obviously through the roof. He’ll be better for it, to know what your body can go through.”I guess I’ve been lucky, I’ve had those experiences at domestic level for Otago for a lot of years but I’ve relied on him a lot so I guess it can only be good for him going forward but he’s a special talent and he’s got another 15 years of it, so he’s got a lot of time to learn about him.”While Kane Williamson’s future remains uncertain, Duffy and Foulkes promise a bright future for the Black Caps attack.

Gary Kirsten, the former South African opening batsman, is in Zimbabwe for a week-long coaching clinic with the Zimbabwe national team.On Tuesday he presented a powerful seminar on his own high-performance model, which he bases on his own personal experiences as a former top international.Kirsten, who currently runs a cricket academy in Cape Town will conduct further batting sessions with the Zimbabwean squad for the remainder of the week before returning to South Africa this weekend.He said of the current crop of Zimbabwe players “There are lots of players with talent – absolutely! There are guys who hit the ball well. It is what the guys are prepared to do to become great players that makes the difference.”Kirsten’s visit is a huge boost for the young Zimbabweans considering they take on South Africa in August.

Scorecard
MS Dhoni waged a lone struggle for Jharkhand•PTI

MS Dhoni showed glimpses of his best during his 70 not out on the burning deck, but opening bursts from Navdeep Saini and Ishant Sharma helped Delhi comfortably defend what looked like a modest score of 225 in the second quarter-final of Vijay Hazare Trophy, played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. It wasn’t an easy pitch to bat on, but Delhi would have been disappointed with the score, especially after an opening stand of 53. Saini and Ishant, though, made full use of variable bounce and pace in the pitch by running through the Jharkhand top order. Dhoni waged a lone struggle from 9 for 4, looking to bat deep into the innings, but ran out of partners.Varun Aaron had won the toss and asked Delhi to bat in a bid to exploit the 9am start, but the batting seemed the easiest in the morning. Debutant wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who will be India’s vice-captain in the Under-19 World Cup, set a foundation with Shikhar Dhawan as both the Jharkhand new bowlers erred in line often to allow the openers easy boundaries. In contrast to Dhawan, Pant showed favour for the on side, and struggled to play forcefully on the off. The two, however, struggled to rotate the strike, as a result of which they went at only four an over, despite all the big shots.With the introduction of spin the variable pace began to show, and although Aaron went out for the toss, Dhoni took charge of the team. Five wickets fell for 47 runs including that of Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir who was caught sleeping while taking a single, and was left stunned by a throw at his end. Nitish Rana then repaired the innings in the company of Manan Sharma. The pair added 74 in 18 overs, but more importantly provided Pawan Negi the license to hit in the end. The three spinners used by Jharkhand gave away only 85 runs in 23 overs, but Rana, who scored 44 off 76, made sure Delhi could go after the quicks.Negi did that with aplomb as the wides and the extras mounted. Negi hit three fours and three sixes in his 16-ball 38 as Delhi struck 51 in the last five overs. The total, though, would have begun to look paltry if Jharkhand had put together one decent partnership at the top. However, their top order couldn’t handle the pace of Delhi’s opening bowlers and trickery of the pitch. Ishank Jaggi fell in the first over, playing all around a full ball from Saini. In the second over, Ishan Kishan, who will lead India in the Under-19 World Cup, did the same to one short-of-a- length ball from Ishant Sharma.It wasn’t the wicket-taking deliveries that represented the true nature of the pitch. Instead, it was the ones in between that would either fly through to the keeper or bounce well short. Even in the first innings Dhoni had to repeatedly pull out his famous legs-together stops. However, the exits of Saurabh Tiwary and Kumar Deobrat were meek. Tiwary drove to extra cover, giving a head-high catch, and Deobrat fended awkwardly at Ishant to get caught at short leg.Then it seemed clear that Dhoni wanted to take the game as deep as possible. He found some support from Kaushal Singh and Ankit Dabas through 23-run partnerships, but their resistance didn’t last long enough. At 55 for 6 Dhoni began to farm the strike a bit, but wickets kept falling. He brought out the big hits in the end, sending left-arm spinner Manan twice into the stands, reaching the highest individual score of the match.Dhoni’s blows brought some entertainment to the sparse Chinnaswamy faithfuls in the P4 Stand. In isolation, the cat-and-mouse game between Dhoni’s advances and Manan’s darts made for good fun. Despite just the last man for company, Dhoni kept clearing the field, hitting Ishant for two sixes and a four in one over.A shrewd Gambhir then reacted by bringing on Negi to bowl darts into the pads from over the wicket. The 25-year-old Suboth Bhati, who took three lower-order wickets, went on to impress by not letting Dhoni get under his slowish yorkers. He ended the match with an lbw verdict against Vikash Singh, although the batsman had hit the ball. Dhoni was left stranded, with a teasing thought in the mind: what if there had been some more support from the other end.